Shamed: A Hot Docs 2025 review
Apr 29, 2025- Permalink
Matt Gallagher’s new documentary Shamed, which premiered at Toronto’s Hot Docs Film Festival, looks beyond the actions of a self-proclaimed online vigilante and into the legal ramifications his behaviours created.
Photo courtesy of TVO.
The documentary follows the events surrounding the court case of former Canadian YouTuber Jason Nassr, who ran a channel named Creeper Hunter TV between 2015 and 2020. His videos would seek out men on adult dating sites using a fake profile and then, through sexually charged texts and phone conversations where Nassr imitated a teen girl, arrange an in-person meeting. When Nassr approached the men at the meet-up, he’d record the reactions of the men he called “creepers” and post the videos, names and other info on his YouTube channel. Though Nassr’s actions gained him a following on YouTube, it also earned him the attention of police. Five of the men in Nassr’s videos committed suicide, with one case of a London, Ontario man leading to Nassr being charged with harassment by telecommunications, extortion and producing and distributing child pornography by written word.
Gallagher’s documentary combines audio from Nassr’s trial with clips from the Creeper Hunter videos and interviews with Nassr, the friends and families of several of the “John Does” who committed suicide, a journalist and Canadian and American law enforcement. It’s not the documentary’s objective to litigate the innocence or guilt of the men in the YouTube videos. In the eyes of law enforcement, Nassr’s videos hindered real justice by capitalizing on the currency of online outrage and put due process, investigations, and even lives at risk.
The film is difficult to watch but timely given the power, reach and influence of online figures in today’s world.
Shamed will screen once more at Hot Docs on Friday, May 2, 2025 and then should have a broadcast on TVO and other broadcast and streaming outlets after that. More info on the Hot Docs screening can be found here.